Data driven smart cities

In the next 10 years, the majority of cities across the developed countries in the World will undergo significant transformation to their infrastructure, technologies and services they provide to their citizens. This change will be driven by both Public and Private organisations and a key principle driver of this transformation will be Data. Data is generated by a multitude of sensors or devices to be processed, analysed or transacted by an equally large range of systems to enable a city to function. Judging by what is happening today in 2019 there are already a large number of projects developing new solutions, technologies and services to leverage Data to enable more efficient, effective and innovative city environments. By 2030 it may well be that it is very little in a city that is not supported or serviced by Data.

Challenges:

• Guidance, standards and best practice for the development of Smart Cities is limited and quite subjective depending upon the public or private sector organisation that prepared it and security information is limited.
• Guidance, standards and best practice for cyber security have been developing in maturity were the last 5 years have seen the most development and investment by Governments and specialist organisations but this has been focused mainly on ICT cyber security.
• Security Technology advancement has surged ahead in the last 5-10 years and often quicker than that of security standards and best practice.
• There are still major skills shortages in many cyber security areas.
• Smart city developments, technological advancements and human necessities / dependencies will test cyber security capabilities and service provision.